- The neuroprotective potential of probiotics after stroke
- The gut microbiota/dendritic cell crosstalk in brain injury
- Fate mapping and trafficking of myeloid cells to the brain
The Anrather lab uses cellular and -omics approaches to study the interactions of the peripheral immune system and the brain – including the microbiota-gut-brain axis - in animal models of cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.
Immunity is a central aspect in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases and stroke, a leading-cause of death and serious disability worldwide. Although numerous experimental studies based on immune modulatory therapies have shown promise, attempts to use such strategies in the clinic have not been successful. One of the main reasons is our poor understanding of the post-ischemic inflammation process. While the inflammatory response originates in the ischemic territory, immune cells of primary and secondary lymphoid organs are activated by inflammatory mediators released from the ischemic territory and by neurohumoral signals generated by the brain. This immune response – a hallmark of experimental and clinical stroke – has deleterious and beneficial components. The Anrather lab aims to identify molecular and cellular circuits that govern the inflammatory response to stroke and other neurodegenerative diseases using -omics and cross-organ cell trafficking tools to study the bidirectional communication between the brain and peripheral immune compartments.
Biography
Anrather obtained his doctoral degree from the Veterinary University of Vienna (Austria) in 1991. He spent his post-doctoral training in the laboratories of Drs. Hans Winkler and Fritz. H. Bach at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School where he investigated the immunological bases of heart transplant rejection. In 1999 he joined the Division of Neurobiology in the Department of Neurology at Weill Cornell as an Assistant Professor. Anrather is now a Professor of Neuroscience.
Selected Publications:
Goertz, J.E., Garcia-Bonilla, L., Iadecola, C., and Anrather, J. (2023). Immune compartments at the brain’s borders in health and neurovascular diseases. Semin Immunopathol 45, 437–449. 10.1007/s00281-023-00992-6.
Garcia-Bonilla, L., Shahanoor, Z., Sciortino, R., Nazarzoda, O., Racchumi, G., Iadecola, C., and Anrather, J. (2023). Brain and blood single-cell transcriptomics in acute and subacute phases after experimental stroke. Preprint at bioRxiv, 10.1101/2023.03.31.53515010.1101/2023.03.31.535150.
Brea, D., Poon, C., Benakis, C., Lubitz, G., Murphy, M., Iadecola, C., and Anrather, J. (2021). Stroke affects intestinal immune cell trafficking to the central nervous system. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 96, 295–302. 10.1016/j.bbi.2021.05.008.
Benakis, C., Brea, D., Caballero, S., Faraco, G., Moore, J., Murphy, M., Sita, G., Racchumi, G., Ling, L., Pamer, E.G., et al. (2016). Commensal microbiota affects ischemic stroke outcome by regulating intestinal γδ T cells. Nat. Med. 22, 516–523. 10.1038/nm.4068.
